Province rejects $3.2 million application from George’s Brook-Milton

Town was ‘overly ambitious’ says mayor; looking at alternate ways of applying for funding for water infrastructure project

GEORGE’S BROOK-MILTON, N.L.

George’s Brook-Milton Mayor Craig Pardy says council is disappointed, but not totally surprised, that their application for $3.2 million in capital works funding to improve water infrastructure has been turned down by the Department of Municipal Affairs.

The $3.2 million would have gone towards Phase 2 of the town’s five-phase plan to upgrade its water system.

“Phase 2 would have seen completion of the main water line on both ends of our town — at Bar Road and Ryder’s Brook — and enhancement of the pump house,” explained Pardy.

He explained that Phase 1, which brought a main water line from the George’s Brook pumphouse straight into Milton, was the crucial stage.

This stage was completed in December of 2017. $1.9 million in funding came from the federal government’s Clean Waste Water Fund (with George’s Brook— Milton paying 10 per cent) and $340,000 capital works funding.

Milton has had considerable water woes in the past— in October of 2014, the town’s water supply, then supplied by Lily Pond, ran dry, and the Town of Clarenville hooked Milton up to its water supply at a cost of $50 per month per household.

During another particularly dry spell in the summer of 2017, the Town of Clarenville hooked Milton up to its water supply at a cost of $50 per month per household, $100 per month for commercial buildings.

Each stage of the project, from here on will help build a better water system, cumulating in the erection of a water tower in Stage 5.

Pardy says the plan for next year is to apply for capital works funding of $900,000, and further apply for this amount annually, noting that if they receive this money annually they will finish on a similar timeline as if they were applying for roughly $3 million every three or four years.

If successful in obtaining the funding, the priority for 2019 would be to decommission the old line near Ellis Road and run the new run line through.

The total estimated cost to complete all five phases is roughly $14 million.